1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

Thursday non-rant: Home improvement update

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Sorry folks, nothing to whine about here today. Life is going pretty well. We’ve been making a lot progress on the home, so I’m providing an update today.

PS: If you saw this post on Wednesday, it is because I am unable to read a calendar. I hope to learn this skill some day.

MDWe don’t discuss our early retirement dreams much with our normal circle of friends. Most people are uncomfortable or get plain bored talking about such things. However, a couple of our neighbors know. Last year, I was changing one of the car’s oil when I had the following conversation:

  • Neighbor: You’re always working on stuff. If you have so much money that you can almost retire, why don’t you pay others to do it all?
  • Me: Well, I have enough money to retire because I do all of this work myself.

I also enjoy most of the work. Well, not changing oil. I have a genetic deficiency which prevents me from changing the oil without spilling at least half of it all over the place. Often, I look like the creature from the black lagoon by the time I’m done. Hopefully, geneticists locate this gene and come up with a cure. Until then, you know why our driveway is covered with kitty litter. (Mrs. 1500 note: I only wish he was making this up or exaggerating the extent of the mess he makes. Every. Single. Time. Sigh…)

I do enjoy home improvement though. It’s fun to take an old, ugly room and turn it into something great. Since I’m the designer and worker, I can do everything just how I like it. Another huge benefit of being a DIY master is that you don’t have to deal with contractors who:

The Master Bathroom (aka The Dinosaur Bathroom)

You wouldn’t believe that Mrs. 1500 and I are two grown adults if you saw our bathroom. What is the theme you ask? Dinosaurs! Dinosaur trash can. Dinosaur soap dispenser. Dinosaur switchplate. Dinosaur wall hangings. Oh wait, I’m supposed to be talking about tile. Here is how our shower turned out:

New shower!
New shower (not grouted yet)!

I rarely install tile the same way twice. I like to push myself a little every time. Those little white squares are really easy to put up and look nice enough, but that’s boring.

Backsplash in master bath
Backsplash in master bath

We used 12″ x 24″ porcelain tiles with glass/travertine strips to shake things up on the front and back. I thought that the huge tiles would be a good idea because their size results in less grout to take care of. However, I didn’t take into account the age of the house.

Nothing is ever straight and plumb in an old home. This place is no exception. Trying to install huge tiles on walls that aren’t perfect is a chore. More than once, I would put a tile up, only to have to take it down and play with the amount of thinset on the back. The tile work turned out pretty good, but took much longer than anticipated. OK, now here are the dinosaurs!

More dinosaur!
More dinosaur!

Guest bathroom

Using the same materials results in less waste, so we used the same tile in this bathroom. However, I installed it horizontally to mix things up a bit.

IMG_20150209_190437638

I also created a shower pan using MMM’s method (post about this coming later). It was a challenge to get the angles correct for proper drainage, but it wasn’t that difficult. Like anything else in life, take your time, proceed carefully and you’ll be OK.

IMG_20150209_190424728

What’s next?

This hideous bathroom will be our last big project.
This hideous bathroom will be our last big project.

Besides many, many loose ends, we have one more bathroom to remodel. Similar to the kitchen we remodeled last year, I plan to do the majority of work over 4 days. My goal is to show you that a remodel that would cost $10,000 can be done over a long weekend by an amateur for about $1000 in materials. Here is how I’ll attack it:

  • Day 1 (demolition day): We’ll tear all everything out down to the studs. The old tile will come out too. We’ll hang new drywall and tape/mud it. This will be a long day.
  • Day 2: Second round of mudding. Install new tub. Start tiling.
  • Day 3: Third round of mudding (I’m not very good). Finish tiling.
  • Day 4:  Install vanity, grout tile.

Posts and railing

We have ugly support posts in front of the house. I want to wrap them in stone to give the home a craftsman look. I’ve never done this before, but how hard can it be?

posts

Finally, I need to install a railing. Our 2nd floor is a broken neck waiting to happen:

Don't fall
Don’t fall

I was all set to buy a conventional railing system when Mrs. 1500 stumbled upon a great idea; why not build a bookcase there instead? I have a soft spot for books, but our house is small and we don’t have a lot of room. I’d much rather have a place to store some of our books than some fancy balusters.

This is our first hack at a basic design:

Idea #1
Design #1

I also consulted with Mr. Frugalwoods who came up with this:

Design #2
Design #2

I haven’t decided which way to build it yet, but it is going to be a fun project. Again, I’ve never done this before, but how hard can it be?

Almost done

Before children, Mrs. 1500 and I would crank through remodels. We’d get home from out 8-5 jobs, scarf down dinner and then work until midnight. We would get huge amounts of work done very quickly. With children, everything moves at the pace of lazy sloth. You steal 20 minutes here and there and that is it. I don’t like to work this way, but unless we ship our children to boarding school, there is no other way.

However, the house is almost done. The cosmetic work is almost all that is left and I find that the most fun. Now that we have 3 working toilets, the pressure is off. Literally.

We moved in June of 2013. It won’t be quite finished at the two year mark this June, but it should be 95% there. That remaining 5% will wait while I enjoy the summer.

How about you? What projects do you have planned?

This old ad cracks me up! And you thought a meteor took out the dinosaurs? Nope, they didn't brush their teeth.
This old ad cracks me up! And you thought a meteor took out the dinosaurs? Nope, it was lack of proper brushing.

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  1. Bathrooms are on our list to update, just not the top. We also want to sand the deck and re-seal it.

    Top of our list is our walkout basement door. Its sealed now with a ton of weather stripping but we can’t open a d close it well. I want to replace the whole thing. Hopefully will do it in the spring time!

  2. I’m very impressed! Our projects take much longer than 4 days! Part of our romantic, kid’s at the gandparents’, Valentine’s Day will be installing trim in our powder room (yes, only a partial bath) that we started renovating in the summer! We used big 12×24 porceline tiles for the floor and I’ve vowed never again. They were warped and impossible!
    Emily @ Simple Cheap Mom recently posted…Can We Stick to a Budget? Our January Spending UpdateMy Profile

    • I can’t think of a better way to spend Valentine’s Day! Way better than going out for a cheesy dinner.

      Warped tiles? Ugggh. I once started tiling and the job wasn’t going so hot. I thought the tiles looked suspicious, so I inspected them. Turns out that they were all different sizes. Note: Avoid the clearance rack at Home Depot.

  3. When you say $1000 are you including the cost of new fixtures? We are estimating $600-$800 just for fixtures. Once wetting board, wall tile, flooring (including sub floor), materials, and tools are accounted for, I think we are going to be running close to $2500 per bathroom. (We are doing electrical work for about $250 per bathroom, and new ceiling/subfloor in one bathroom, but that’s only $250 as well).

    • It breaks down roughly like this:
      Tub enclosure: $350
      Tile: $100
      Vanity, sink, faucets and small closet: $400
      New shower fixtures: $100
      Other miscellaneous stuff like drywall, grout, and mud: $200

      So, we’re a little over $1000. We were aided a bit by finding the vanity, countertop and faucets in the Ikea clearance section. Even if we hadn’t though, you can find all kinds of great stuff used at local places like Habit for Humanity. One of the neatest bathrooms I saw recently had an old entertainment cabinet made into a vanity and a homemade sink/countertop made of concrete. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MjLlkqvxqA

      We have already replaced the toilet, so will keep that. Its a really great dual flush unit from Costco that set us back about $100. We have already replaced the light fixture too ($50).

      I still think it’s very reasonable to be able to remodel an entire bathroom for under $1500 or less if you’re resourceful.

      • Looking at your numbers makes me think that we might be overestimating our “other stuff” numbers by a few hundred bucks. I asked my husband to estimate that part, and he may have given me then $800 figure as the combined figure for both bathrooms.

        We have been looking at the ReStore and on Craiglist for fixtures, but haven’t been too thrilled with anything yet (except our $6 light fixture for one bathroom). That being said, I am guessing we have at least 3 months before we touch the bathrooms, so we might get an awesome deal yet.

        • $800 does sound like a lot, but it can add up if you let it. Spring for a couple fancy towel bars and a gold plated, diamond encrusted toilet paper roll holder and you’ll be at $800 before you know it.

          We are lucky in that we have a huge, used fixture warehouse in downtown Denver. Perhaps there is something similar in your neck of the woods?

  4. That is awesome that you are handy and kind of enjoy the work. I like saving money, but I just hate doing this kind of work. You may be missing the oil changing gene, I missed the gene to enjoy any form of manual labor (but I do love working out).

    My wife’s dad is a contractor and designer and so we hire him for most things. I like that if I am going to pay for it that it at least stays in the family, and we tend to get the family rate (which isn’t free, but still less than regular customers)

    In the past year we have spent about $25,000 on improvements and I have a post written up to talk about this. Although I love what we did, I constantly think about what that money could be doing for us and our future. If were completely up to me, I would likely put off just about every home improvement project…but then my wife wouldn’t be very happy. So this year I devised a compromise that we set a budget for up to $10,000/year in improvements. She has a long list.

    Last year we spent $20,000, so this at least builds in a 50% savings and slows down the cash flow drain.

    Bathrooms look nice. Good work!

    If you get bored an need another project, your always welcome here 🙂
    Gen Y Finance Guy recently posted…Buy Into Weakness – Investment Rule #1My Profile

    • Thanks Gen Y!

      If I could find decent people, I may outsource a bit more. If you have family who do good work, that is a great resource.

      “Although I love what we did, I constantly think about what that money could be doing for us and our future.”

      I think about this same thing. Every. Single. Day.

  5. Hey, the bookcase! I was wondering the other day if that project had started yet! I actually used part of that model last week to draw up some bookcase designs for my office. Maybe I should start a side business of “poorly sketched bookcase designs” 🙂

    Most of our home improvement stuff has been put on hold due to snow operations. 71 inches in 17 days has meant that I spend a lot of time shoveling paths, widening paths, and moving snow from the alley that is our front walk to the back patio where I can pile it as high as I need.

    I admit to a perverse love of snow removal though. Mrs. FW is very glad I feel this way… 🙂
    Mr. Frugalwoods recently posted…Great Trash Finds: Pretty Things EditionMy Profile

    • Holy cow, that is a lot of snow. I hope the water has somewhere to go when it melts.

      When we lived in Wisconsin, it snowed about 100″ one winter. One day in April, it got really warm and all of that snow melted over the course of a couple days. Our basement didn’t appreciate it. That was a bad time.

      Our bookcase may turn into a 2016 project. I’m saving it for last because I think it will be loads of fun. I also want to get it right. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve completed a project and then wish I would have done something different. With this, I’m trying to come up with a neat piece to use for the top. Haven’t figured it out yet.

      Can’t wait to see your projects!

  6. I’m in the process of tiling my girls bathroom. Actually, I just finished tiling. It took a lot of time, but we used marble and I did all the bull nose myself. Plus, when you add in niche’s, decos and a window, it takes some time. Due to using natural stone, I had to break it up in a couple of days.

    The trick to old homes and tiling is furring strips. I joint 2 sides of a 2×4 and rip from 3/32 to 5/8 and level out the walls before my backerboard goes up. Have I mentioned wedi is the bees knees?
    Elroy recently posted…Painting MDF edges without it looking fuzzyMy Profile

    • Furring strips are a great idea and I did some of that here. Apparently not enough though. Those big tiles are such a pain.

      Show some more of your projects!

  7. Great work. I love DIY work and growing up I was always helping my pops build a porch, build a closet, wire this, plumb that. But unfortunately my current line of work requires I live in a metropolitan area, and its quite hard to find any single family home in a one hour’s commute that is in an area I wouldn’t need to carry a 5lb Maglite on my commute home (if you catch my drift). I’m either going to have to find a new job, or convince my superiors to work remotely before that happens. But I’m itching to own my own project!
    Fervent Finance recently posted…Keeping up with the JonesesMy Profile

    • I do catch your drift. Yikes and forget that!

      DIY is awesome. Not many things are better than sitting back with a good beer and admiring your handiwork after a long day.

  8. I’ve had the same thought about contractors. For work that isn’t incredibly specialized, I find it’s not only cheaper, but FASTER for me to learn how to do something, plan it , and then do it, rather than to research contractors, get them to actually show up, compare prices, schedule them, and have them complete it.

    I built a huge set of “built-in” bookcases a few years ago in a week which I took off from work. The designing was going on for much longer than that, but the build took a week. It was really satisfying! They are up against a wall, so not free-standing like yours are. I find Instructables really useful in these circumstances.

    I love that ad. It’s as if stegosaurses were the only dinosaurs to ever go extinct, and only because they did a terrible job taking care of their teeth.
    Norm recently posted…The Liebster AwardMy Profile

    • “For work that isn’t incredibly specialized, I find it’s not only cheaper, but FASTER for me to learn how to do something, plan it , and then do it, rather than to research contractors, get them to actually show up, compare prices, schedule them, and have them complete it.”

      Yeah, EXACTLY! Some of the carpentry work I couldn’t do myself and it took me 6 months to find someone. I left at least 50 messages and 2 called me back.

      I with the dinosaurs would have brushed their teeth so they were around today.

  9. Wrapping those posts in stone is going to add a lot of weight to your porch. You probably will need a concrete foundation/footer to reinforce it … especially with the heaving soils here in Colorado.

    • Yeah, those posts sit on top of a big footer that goes way down (as measured by the inspectors of our fine town). This won’t be an issue.

  10. Real question what’s your favorite dinosaur and please explain why and does this have any relation to your finances? It’s funny how we get attached to certain animals/characters and they end up in our yard or bathroom, my Uncle has nothing but frogs in his bathroom. While I love me some Polar Bears I have not yet began to decorate the house with these fuzzy friendly bears.
    Even Steven recently posted…What’s Your Best #MoneySavingWeekMy Profile

  11. I’m excited to get to this stage. We are still renters so our “projects” revolve around removing clutter. How is that going for you guys? Any updated garage pictures?

    I’ll be honest I like the clean line on the front of design 1. No corners for kids to hit their heads if they trip.

    Though falling and smacking there head is a lot less serious then falling off the second floor . 🙂
    The Roamer recently posted…Weekend Wanderings #3: Breaking Down BarriersMy Profile

    • Garage! Ha! STILL not cleaned out completely, but it houses one car these days. We have a lot of building materials in there. As soon as the projects are done, we’ll step it up a bit.

      Yeah, I’m not sure which design I’ll go with. The 2nd one would be easier and given my lack of experience, that may be the way to do. Dunno…

  12. Ugh, this reminds me that I am still halfway through my closet reno and do not want to keep going! I have literally 1 plank of laminate to fit in an awkward angle to finish the floor, then it is time to build the shelves around the safe I squeezed in there. Do NOT install flooring with just a circular saw, straight cuts are a PITA!

    The bathrooms look great, thanks for the motivation to get back to it.

    Cheers
    Brian @ Debtless in Texas recently posted…Preparing for a Baby Without Breaking the BankMy Profile

  13. With Mini Maroon #1’s third birthday in just over a week, we are planning to tackle a swing set over the weekend. Not one of those buy-in-a-box-with-instructions swing sets. We did some looking, found one we liked, and will go buy raw lumber to go with the swing set hardware that has been arriving from Amazon over the last two days, with more yet to come. Our DIY approach should lessen the blow to the pocketbook while stimulating the mind with creativity. I’m looking forward to a fun project!
    Mrs. Maroon recently posted…Are You Too Chicken…My Profile

    • Wow, I took a look at your kitchen, really nice work. It’s beautiful! Are you available for consulting? 🙂

    • I’m all for a fiberglass surround in a rental. Much lower maintenance. Nothing for a renter to not take care of…

  18. If you are lousy at oil changes, get one of these:

    http://www.autozone.com/test-scan-and-specialty-tools/fluid-evacuator/mityvac-1-9-gal-fluid-evacuator/594882_0_0/

    I picked one up used years ago and this is often what the dealer uses. It sucks out the oil via the dip stick. No mess, and no spills (unless you spill the oil while dumping it out).

    Even at full price, you will quickly pay yourself back the difference of going to a shop for an oil change.

    • Hmmmm, not a bad idea. I’ve heard of these before actually. Only concern would be residual oil. This thing probably leaves a little bit in there as opposed to the old fashioned way which would drain it completely.

  19. Looks like everything is coming along real nicely. Yup, you can save significant dollars by doing this work yourself, and the learning process to me is half the fun. My wife and I aren’t much of carpenters or contractors, but we’re still going to tackle our kitchen before we move away from this house – to include redoing the cabinets, countertops and a backsplash.

    It’s gonna be fun (hopefully), and will increase the value of the home nicely.
    Steve Adcock recently posted…How the dog park saved us $200/monthMy Profile

  20. Bathroom is next on our list but has been put off till summer while we procrastinate on tile color, type etc! Still tossing up whether I should attempt the plumbing or not 😀

    I’m still not 100% what drywall is which goes to show you what level of DIY expertise I have!

    In the meantime we’ll tidy up the garden and maybe give our spare rooms a lick of paint.

    I love the bookshelf idea. Shame our house doesn’t have a space for railings so we’re can’t use that idea.
    theFIREstarter recently posted…Combining and Tracking Couple’s Finances, More Moneydashboard tips, plus free £10!My Profile